Storm Hawks : RADARR
by S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Bane
Summary: Deadly secrets resurface and Radarr finally finds out about his past, and who shaped it. Mild Themes
1. The Caller

Ringing.

Ringing.

Probably the ominous sound coming from any kind of Communications Device that exists in all of the Atmos, especially Radios and Long-Range Transmitters.

It was an annoying sound, so obvious and so piercing, especially in the secluded darkness of a the sub-urban streets of Atmosia. But the darkness was comforting, it provided stealth, independence from everyone and time for contemplation, all of which faired well for the small, dark grey, hooded figure lurking in the shadows of the Southern Sub Streets.

This dark grey hooded figure, a quiet and seclusion loving creature in nature was no less that 3 feet tall. And what glimpses of this figure you would see inside the Shadows, were deep green eyes, eyes with a look of solemn seriousness.

The ringing stopped, the figure raised the Lorrad to her ear, and began her explanation into what may be a most devastating topic. A topic that would embroil the life and sole of one Furian, a blue furred, long eared Furian.

'Talk' A gruff voice spoke.

'They've found him' she said.

A faint rustle on the other end of the line could only be interpreted as a despairing sigh.

'How long have they known and how long do we have?' the voice continued.

'3 Hours ago someone slipped them info on Project : FireStorm, whoever told them also helped them find out the location of…' She couldn't finish under the fear she was experiencing.

'The location of who!?' a now anxiety filled voice yelled.

She tightened her grip on the Lorrad.

'R' she said quietly.

Usually the silence was comforting to her, but this particular descent into quietness was harrowing and deadly.

'Where is he now?' the voice said.

'Onboard the Condor, asleep I'd assume. I don't think that he'd be awake at 02:14mt in the morning'

'Do we have time to get to him?'

'We could hijack a Blade Skimmer, we'd never get there in time.'

More silence.

'So what are we going to do, Eva?'

Eva.

Her name, short but sweet in all manners yet a word she loathed to the core. Eva was not her name. E.V.A. was her name.

'There's nothing we can do, we can only hope that R still knows how to defend himself, and if he does that he escapes. Then we'll find him'

'You really think he'll want to here what happened to him?'

Eva considered it for a moment. If she didn't then she knew that no one else would.

'No, he won't' She said.

'But he's got no choice'


	2. Night

E.V.A.'s words were true, drifting 25,000 Feet in the Air, above the skyline of Terra Rex, casting shadows on the clouds : The Condor bucked slightly at the collision with soft air currents.

Sound asleep in separate rooms, one Wallop, one Sharp-shooter, one Sky Knight, one Navigator, one Merb…

And one Mission Specialist, travelled quietly between the realms of dreams.

Peaceful nights like these ones were few and far between. Often the night accompanied squadrons of Cyclonian Talons, monstrous pillar of rocks shrouded in clouds and horrendous storms that could tear Cruisers apart.

But tonight the Storm Hawks were enjoying a peaceful space of rest. Well almost all of the Storm Hawks.

Slowly the bright eyes of the Mission Specialist opened, penetrating deep into the darkness. Radarr's head slowly lifted from the basket, his ears stretching high into the cool night air. Squinting at the dull light Radarr slowly grasped for the small clock that stood lonely beside his basket, a small smile formed on the creature's face as the two arrows pointed to the time signature of 02:15mt.

'Perfect' He thought.

Radarr had been planning this operation for a whole week, not just for extra time but also for calculating all of the odds, dangers and consequences of his next actions. And by actions it would mean the moves of what Radarr secretly referred to as Operation : Sneak.

Although his planned actions where somewhat egotistical and selfish it would grant him the pleasure of gouging down on a leg of fresh chicken that at this moment was lying inside a shut metal containment unit, also known as a fridge. Aerrow despised Radar's 'Midnight' Snacks purely because they revolved around food, okay so it slightly obvious that a plate of chicken at dinner time didn't appease Radarr but it didn't mean that he had to creep around the Condor and devour it before the morning came.

But that didn't matter right now, what mattered was that Radarr : A. Maintained a covert status. B. Creep towards Kitchen and C. Devour the chicken!!.

Slowly he began his first Objective. Getting up from his basket he quickly scanned the horizon of Aerrow's dark room trying to identify any potential threats or obstructions. The immediate silence was suddenly broken by a sudden rustle from above him. Aerrow. Radarr quickly shrank back into his basket pretending to sleep waiting for Aerrow to settle back into his deep sleep.

As the silence slowly embedded itself once again Radarr made his move. Jumping out of his basket and hitting the floor with a gentle thud he turned hoping that Aerrow hadn't seen him, thankfully he hadn't. There was no need for Clothes, putting them on and taking them off would have only been a time-consuming burden. And anyway, its not like anyone else will be awake at this time in the Morning?

The door to Aerrow's room was already open but shrouded in darkness, Radarr poked his head out and looked from left to right. Pitch Black. Although it was obviously disappointing it did provide an excellent cover to Radarr, slowly he crept to his left and began the walk down the corridor towards the Kitchen.

'And where do you think you going?' a soft voice said.

Radarr stopped, instantly. He looked around trying to discover where the voice had come from. Then he realised.

'Crud! So close!' he Thought as he slowly turned behind him.

What Radarr saw was not quite what he had expected. Instead of a blue haired, slim bodied navigator he had expected to see the solemn face of the Sky Knight of the Storm Hawks. But either way it still meant that he was in trouble.

'Going somewhere, Radarr?' Piper said.

Radarr didn't speak, he knew that he had just been exposed. It was embarrassing enough being found out but it was more embarrassing being half-naked and facing a girl alone in the darkness. He blushed.

Piper shook her head, smiling. 'Aerrow told me that you might try something like this, thankfully morning deck jogs have there uses besides exercise.'

Still Radarr didn't speak. He couldn't because Piper would have no clue as to what he was saying and also because trying to explain what he was doing would be too incriminating.

'Go back to bed Radarr, we and you need rest' Said Piper turning back down the corridor.

Radarr grunted his agreement, albeit he truthfully disagreed strongly. Getting out of a warm basket for all this then letting it go to waste was bad, and even though he would not get his hands on the succulent chicken leg in the fridge he could still get something out of this, A walk maybe?. Walks weren't Radarr's style but it would help him sleep and wind down for the night.

Sighing his defeat Radarr slowly began to plod off down the Corridor towards the Bridge.


	3. Little Bird Alpha'

Creeping or walking slowly into the Bridge was a relatively easy task considering that Radarr no longer required a cover of stealth or secrecy. But just because his cover had been 'Blown' didn't mean that making noise was an option, the Storm Hawks were still asleep and personally Radarr didn't want to wake up a grumpy and probably moody Finn from his 'Beauty Sleep'.

Yet with all the silence and darkness Radarr wanted to breach the unwanted solitude that he found himself in, 'A stroll on the outside of the Bridge?' he thought. Radarr turned his head behind him.

No one, there was no one there. Just darkness.

'Well one stroll can't hurt.' he thought. Carefully Radarr tip toed across the bridge towards the exterior door, it seemed obvious that it would be left open. Most Merbs enjoy fresh air, as long as it didn't contain any Nerve Toxins, Radiation or Mutagenic Substances. Radarr smiled as he remembered how Stork sometimes dressed up inside his overdone S-119A MCRBP Suit just to measure the presence of harmful material outside the Condor's bridge, the others would simply walk out and breath the fresh air in, much to Stork's Dismay and frustration.

Walking out onto the Exterior deck Radarr was immediately confronted by a gust of the cool night air, he shivered and wrapped his arms around his half-naked fur body stepping further out to reach the full night sky.

Sharp moonlight covered the sky painting the Condor a comforting white colour, this combined with the soft gaze of the stars created a soothing scene for the young creature that was now walking himself on the deck.

Radarr looked up into the sky a small smile forming on his face at the sight of the beautiful colours it portrayed, it was these kind of Nights that Radarr enjoyed. They offered quiet, soothing times and where often opposed to the usual Storm's and Heavy Thunder Charges that accumulated over many of the Terras.

He walked over and leant on the rail of the Deck letting his arms prop his head up as he gazed on. He thought for a second, not about the past day, but about the future. Radarr was not a thoughtful creature but every so often he had his moments of mind. 'What's out there? Who's out there? Why are they out there?', three of the most common question's that Radarr asked himself. He couldn't answer them, he couldn't answer any of his questions. But it mattered little, Radarr knew that eventually he would find the answers.

The wind buffeted his face and his ears flew into his face smacking his cheek softly, he sniggered and brushed them away.

As he moved his head, something sparkled out in the sky, caught by his eye.

Puzzled Radarr stared at the area that housed the sparkle, he couldn't quite make out the exact position, everything was the same, deep night sky. He shrugged it off and cuddled himself again as another wave of cool air buffeted his body, turning to leave he took one last view of the night sky.

'That's him' The deep voice said. 'The one walking back into the ship'

'You sure?' another voice said.

The deep brown haired man turned to face the other, a deep snarl across his face.

'Yes'

The other nodded and immediately grabbed his radio.

'War Ghost 2, this is Little Bird Alpha, Target sighted aboard Hostile Craft.'

A sparky voice immediately retorted back through the headset.

'Copy that Little Bird Alpha, await orders'

The voices…

They were not friendly, if anything there were entirely hostile, if hostile is a good word to describe the heavily armed and armoured soldiers sitting aboard the 3 Blade Skimmers, and these Skimmers, red and black by any standards housed an insignia on there hull's.

But not just any Insignia.

The infamous Red Phoenix that struck fear into all those who saw it.

Cyclonians.

Yet for this kind of operation, Talons proved useless almost to the very core. Instead the brawn but not necessarily the brains of Cyclonia had been commissioned for such a task. The brawn : The Cyclonian Thunder Corps, the top commander's Heavy War Soldiers.

And now they had a mission, and now they had there orders, and whether people or Talons liked them or not they were going to be fulfilled, murderous or not.

Unbeknownst to the Condor and its occupants, these Heavy War Soldiers, armed to the teeth and armoured in the most ludicrously unobvious ways where sitting aboard three Cyclonian Blade Skimmers and where heading straight towards them. And it wasn't to ask for directions.


	4. Detection

The Flagship of the third wing of the Cyclonian Army continued to cruise silently towards the Condor, the three Cyclonian Blade Skimmers flying only 3-quarters of an Olta away.

'Little Bird Alpha, objectives confirmed. Board the Condor, find 'R' of Project : Firestorm and eliminate him and the Storm Hawks. You have your orders, carry them out!' the voice on the radio blasted through.

'Copy that War Ghost 2, Little Bird Alpha out'

The heavy hand that held the radio slowly put it back onto the latch, it went back to softly stroking the Darium Fire Halberd stuck between the armour of his legs.

The only thing to be heard apart from the silence was the soft hum of the Blade Skimmers as its Twin Exhaust Engines propelled it softly through the Sky. No one, not even they're commander spoke, they didn't even look at each other. This is how the worked, it was how they operated.

Above most common concepts of Cyclonian Combat, they didn't speak because they didn't want to.

Radarr's average perception of Bed time was snuggling down in his basket with a good lump of whatever he could get his hands on, food that is. However this time, his perception was not quite the request that Radarr had hoped to obtain, being found out wasn't the bad thing, but going back to bed with a growling stomach was.

He grumbled at his defeat and quietly crept over to his basket, as he slowly began to place himself back into the warmth of the soft blanket he rubbed the fur on his stomach still sour at his failure.

'Ah, well' He thought 'There's always next time;'

Radarr sniggered at this realisation, next time he would have to be more careful he knew, but now was not a time to contemplate snack times, Radarr was tired and sleep was the next highest priority to him. Quietly he snuggled down into the basket, basking in the warmth of the blanket he purred softly as his eyes slowly closed.

Yet the sure and steady veil of the night was broken, breached in what could and should be a more appropriate term.

Being a stable flight plan for the Condor the open sky proceeded to be a sufficient medium for the Flagship of the Storm Hawks, it meant they could wistfully sleep in peace without bashing into any other Sky Ships or Terras, or Ravaging Mandols, as Stork liked to remind everyone.

But this breach, sufficient by any standards of infiltration was not by Terras or Monsters, but rather by three silent Skimmers flying covertly towards the Condor, a team of 3 Thunder Corps Troopers on each Skimmer.

'War Ghost 2, this is Little Bird Alpha, objective reached, beginning input stage'

'Spare me the Radio blabber you fools and just get the job done' retorted an upset Ravess, it appeared that the lack of sleep was finally taking its toll.

'Understood Commander' became the fear filled voice of the leading Thunder Corps Trooper. It was orders like the one which he had just received that often marked the end of someone's life, the Trooper just hoped that it wasn't his.

Travelling at equal speed the Skimmers glided softly along side the Condor their long red Potradium-Tarus Plated wings touching apart only by mere centimetres, a fete such as this required precision stealth and accuracy, any wrong move would almost certainly send the Blade skimmer flying out of control and violently slamming into the side of the Condor.

Yet without much difficulty the Skimmer finally met the hard Metal Hull of the Condor, it was the sheer scope of the situation that was so outstanding.

'Contact' came the silent voice of the Lead Trooper, at an instance of this command the Troopers silently implemented their plan. Without even a flicker of hesitation the Armour Clad Cyclonians swiped they're arms out and grabbed the Signature Halberds from the handles of the Skimmers.

Crawling out onto the Wings of the Skimmer they knelt down ignoring the throb of they're knees as the Armour Plates dug deep into them.

Slowly the Thunder Corp Lead Trooper crept over the wing and turned the emotionless abyss that he called a face towards his Troopers.

'Alright, Team 1, Objective Engines, take em out and destroy the critical equipment, this bird is to be dead in the air in 3 minutes. Team 2, the Skimmers in the Hangar are not to leave this bird, not now, not ever again. Understood?'

The Troopers nodded, and in the presence they looked at each other, they always did this, sometimes these Troopers went into battle, sometimes they didn't make it out. It was also wise to get a good look at them in case they became more bodies that often piled up in the climax of these kind of Operations.

'Team 3' The Lead Trooper snarled, breaking the empathy, 'Your coming with me, we going to find 'R', and kill him'

At once a soft gasp erupted under the mask of one of the Troopers, at once all of the others turned to face him, snarling looks sprawled all over their faces.

'You would be wise to conceal your fear, or whatever it is your feeling, it may just cost you your life' came the growling voice of the Lead Trooper.

The Trooper nodded and forced the gasp into a stubborn and solemn look.

'No matter what you see or do, the Storm Hawks are not to get up in the morning, now lets move'

Silently yet slowly the Elite of the Cyclonian Fleet began the grudging journey of ascending the hard Metal Armour of the hull of the Condor.

Radarr's basket was the product of a combination of soft Skylon and a hard amount of half-dead Abaxa Tree Twigs, everyone almost certainly knew that such an object was bound to fall apart as soon as anyone so much as breathed on it, yet it had held Radarr's weight for long time now, and to everyone's amazement, it was still continuing that task.

Yet even with the Skylon coating and the softness of a deep blue blanket there were always nights that somehow managed to prolong Radarr's awareness, something which was deeply opposed to his natural sleep routine, and it was turning out to be one of those nights.

Radarr tossed himself in the blanket and settled for a few seconds hoping that the essence of sleep would creep over him, but it didn't. He grumbled and turned himself over again, landing on his side. Once again he waited for sleep to creep up on him, but once again it didn't.

'Why does it have to be one of those nights? Please tell me!' he sniggered ironically.

Radarr hated these nights, every morning after he would wake up, his eye lids only half open, he would bash into Aerrow cupboards and get hit on the head with the clock or crystal the often inhabited the top of the cupboards, most likely a product of having slow reaction time that could be attributed to lack of sleep.

'Oh what's the use' he sighed flipping onto his back, amazingly this was the one position that always seemed to do the trick, after about 3 or 4 hours. He couldn't believe it, only a few minutes ago he had been dog tired, but now? He found himself unable to keep himself from flicking his tail around.

Yet Radarr knew that sleep was vital, especially with the very likely and distinct possibility of Cyclonian Attack in the night or morning. Slowly he let his eyelids lockdown upon his eyes.

A quaint sound echoed quietly in Aerrow room, bouncing itself off the walls and slamming firmly into Radarr's flopped ears. A soft clamping sound, heavily metallic in all motions though.

Radarr rubbed his head, 'Its either way to early in the morning or too late at night to for Stork to be clamping around in them kind of shoes, even if they are resistant to Mind Worm Venom'

'What a minute…'Radarr suddenly thought. His eyes opened sharply, and his ears pricked up eager to absorb more of the noise.

'Those shoes are at the bottom of the gorge, I know about that, I threw them down there'

Radarr was puzzled by the noise, especially now since it had gotten louder, like heavy footsteps. It was hard trying to remove the warm blanket, but at this situation it was better than trying to sleep. Ignoring the sudden rush of cold that greeted him as he removed the blanket he clambered out of his basket and staggered over to the door rubbing his forehead.

'This better be good' he grumbled. Finally reaching the open door to Aerrow's room he shrank to its side and poked his ear out into the corridor. The noise had become louder, definitely footsteps.

'I hate to say this' Radarr thought 'But I've got a bad feeling about this'

It was probably the darkness, but darkness and feeling were two different things, and in this situation they presented little disadvantage or advantage to the common reaction of heading out into the Corridor to 'investigate'.

Creeping slowly Radarr tip toed across the Corridor, deeper and closer towards the sound.


End file.
